Rjkpsmith
Newly Enlightened
Hello All,
Having recently become interested in Flood-to-Throw Lights, I have been acquiring a few lately and thought I would make a review of my favorite one so far.
I really don't know who makes this light as is doesn't seem to have manufacturer name on it anywhere. On one side it says "Cree Q5" and on the other it says "NF-500." I will call it the NF-500.
I purchased this light at KaiDomain for a very reasonable price.
One side of the NF-500 with focusing head retracted.
And the other side with the head extended.
A picture of the business end.
As you can probably see, the NF-500 focuses via a push-pull design, rather than a twisting mechanism. The NF-500 comes with a cheap lanyard but I took that off right away and didn't have it handy for the pictures. Overall the light feels very well built in my opinion - the finish is consistent over the whole body, and the threads seem pretty sturdy. Also, O-rings are included under the sliding head and in nearly all of the necessary places. (none between the bezel and lens or between the lens and the emitter.) The NF-500 runs on one 18650 battery... I did try it just briefly on 2x cr123 - but that is probably not a smart idea.:thumbsdow It comes with a reverse clicky and a Green GITD O-ring. The NF-500 uses a Cree Q5 XR-E led (according to KD) and is a three mode light. The three modes are High-Low-Strobe, and they cycle continuously. So you have to remember that if you turn it off in strobe the light will come on in high - and if you turn it off in low the light will come on in strobe etc.
In my opinion this is not an ideal UI as I am constantly switching between modes to obtain the desired brightness. I would much prefer a it if the NF-500 had mode memory or at least always started in High mode etc.
To help with the clumsy UI - I installed a forward clicky switch from a Romisen RC-A4 which is being modded. (I believe that the RC-A4 Forward clicky is the same one that is sold on Shiningbeam for the Romisen RC-N3.) With The new forward clicky switch installed, I can quickly tap through the modes and then fully click when I come to the mode that I want. Eventually I may buy a single mode driver and replace the current one as I use high mode most of the time anyhow.
On top is the old reverse clicky, on bottom is the new forward clicky. (I believe that I omitted a few parts from the old switch assembly - but this is the general idea.)
Oh yeah, and I also put a black switch boot in as well, just trim a bit off the inside and you are good to go.
Here is the Romisen switch fully installed. It is a totally drop in and go modification.
I also decided to put a Novatac Clip on the NF-500 - it is a little loose, but once you torque down the tailcap it works very well.
The NF-500 overall is very small and compact... compared to other 18650 and 2 CR123 lights it is the smallest one that I own.
Here is the NF-500 next to the Eagletac P100C2 (my battleworn edc) and a Solarforce L2 host.
Another Light that is in the NF-500's category would be the DX X2000 flood to throw light.
Here they are side by side. As you can see the NF-500 is both shorter and smaller around.
Although both lights are roughly the same size, price, and brightness, in my opinion the NF-500 is a far superior light. The build quality feels better, the battery tube is MADE for 18650's, (rather than the x2000's oversized 3x AAA tube) the stock switch is much better, and it comes with a real o-ring under the sliding mechanism. (versus the X2000's metal o-ring???:green
In my opinion the only thing that the X2000 beats the NF-500 in would probably be heatsinking.
Here is a picture of the internals to show you what I mean.
(btw I replaced the X2000's hokey metal o-ring with a rubber one.)
The lights both disassemble in the same manner but as you can see the pill of the NF-500 is much smaller than that of the X2000.
NF-500 in the left - X2000 on the right
I don't really know how big of an issue this is. Perhaps a bit of arctic silver 5 would make the heat transfer of the NF-500 just fine, but it just seems like the pill is a bit too small.
As far as I can tell the NF-500 and the X2000 both use the same lens. The lenses are the same diameter, and I was not able to tell any difference when I swapped them between the lights.
So for anyone who wants either of these lights just for the lens - the NF-500 is about $1 cheaper.:thumbsup:
Anyhow, now onto some beamshots!:twothumbs
The lights that I used for the beamshots are; the NF-500, the DX X2000, the Romisen RC-C6 (on RCR123), and the EagleTac P100C2.
Sorry about the fact that I seem to have chopped a bit off the side of some of these... trying to make good beamshots really makes me appreciate the effort that others put into theirs.
NF-500 Flood
NF-500 Throw
X2000 flood
X2000 Throw
Romisen RC-C6 Flood
Romisen RC-C6 Throw
Finally the EagleTac P100C2
I did try to make a few long distance beamshots, but they didn't turn out that well... I will have to try to perfect my skills some other night when I have more time. As you can see there is virtually no difference between the NF-500 and the X2000 - I played with them a bit while I was taking the shots, and I really couldn't detect that one was brighter than the other. Unfortunately I neglected to take a picture of the NF-500's low mode. Suffice it to say that it is the usual pseudo low mode that so many DX/KD lights come with. (i.e. about 50% of full output.)
Well, to recap - the NF-500 is a great *cheap* little flood-to-throw light that may be one of the better ones on the market currently. Considering the price it may be worth having one.:nana: Thanks for reading and any suggestions/criticisms/observations are welcome.
Having recently become interested in Flood-to-Throw Lights, I have been acquiring a few lately and thought I would make a review of my favorite one so far.
I really don't know who makes this light as is doesn't seem to have manufacturer name on it anywhere. On one side it says "Cree Q5" and on the other it says "NF-500." I will call it the NF-500.
I purchased this light at KaiDomain for a very reasonable price. One side of the NF-500 with focusing head retracted.
And the other side with the head extended.
A picture of the business end.
As you can probably see, the NF-500 focuses via a push-pull design, rather than a twisting mechanism. The NF-500 comes with a cheap lanyard but I took that off right away and didn't have it handy for the pictures. Overall the light feels very well built in my opinion - the finish is consistent over the whole body, and the threads seem pretty sturdy. Also, O-rings are included under the sliding head and in nearly all of the necessary places. (none between the bezel and lens or between the lens and the emitter.) The NF-500 runs on one 18650 battery... I did try it just briefly on 2x cr123 - but that is probably not a smart idea.:thumbsdow It comes with a reverse clicky and a Green GITD O-ring. The NF-500 uses a Cree Q5 XR-E led (according to KD) and is a three mode light. The three modes are High-Low-Strobe, and they cycle continuously. So you have to remember that if you turn it off in strobe the light will come on in high - and if you turn it off in low the light will come on in strobe etc.
In my opinion this is not an ideal UI as I am constantly switching between modes to obtain the desired brightness. I would much prefer a it if the NF-500 had mode memory or at least always started in High mode etc.
To help with the clumsy UI - I installed a forward clicky switch from a Romisen RC-A4 which is being modded. (I believe that the RC-A4 Forward clicky is the same one that is sold on Shiningbeam for the Romisen RC-N3.) With The new forward clicky switch installed, I can quickly tap through the modes and then fully click when I come to the mode that I want. Eventually I may buy a single mode driver and replace the current one as I use high mode most of the time anyhow.
On top is the old reverse clicky, on bottom is the new forward clicky. (I believe that I omitted a few parts from the old switch assembly - but this is the general idea.)
Oh yeah, and I also put a black switch boot in as well, just trim a bit off the inside and you are good to go.
Here is the Romisen switch fully installed. It is a totally drop in and go modification.
I also decided to put a Novatac Clip on the NF-500 - it is a little loose, but once you torque down the tailcap it works very well.
The NF-500 overall is very small and compact... compared to other 18650 and 2 CR123 lights it is the smallest one that I own.
Here is the NF-500 next to the Eagletac P100C2 (my battleworn edc) and a Solarforce L2 host.
Another Light that is in the NF-500's category would be the DX X2000 flood to throw light.
Here they are side by side. As you can see the NF-500 is both shorter and smaller around.
Although both lights are roughly the same size, price, and brightness, in my opinion the NF-500 is a far superior light. The build quality feels better, the battery tube is MADE for 18650's, (rather than the x2000's oversized 3x AAA tube) the stock switch is much better, and it comes with a real o-ring under the sliding mechanism. (versus the X2000's metal o-ring???:green
In my opinion the only thing that the X2000 beats the NF-500 in would probably be heatsinking.
Here is a picture of the internals to show you what I mean.
(btw I replaced the X2000's hokey metal o-ring with a rubber one.)
The lights both disassemble in the same manner but as you can see the pill of the NF-500 is much smaller than that of the X2000.
NF-500 in the left - X2000 on the right
I don't really know how big of an issue this is. Perhaps a bit of arctic silver 5 would make the heat transfer of the NF-500 just fine, but it just seems like the pill is a bit too small.
As far as I can tell the NF-500 and the X2000 both use the same lens. The lenses are the same diameter, and I was not able to tell any difference when I swapped them between the lights.
So for anyone who wants either of these lights just for the lens - the NF-500 is about $1 cheaper.:thumbsup:
Anyhow, now onto some beamshots!:twothumbs
The lights that I used for the beamshots are; the NF-500, the DX X2000, the Romisen RC-C6 (on RCR123), and the EagleTac P100C2.
Sorry about the fact that I seem to have chopped a bit off the side of some of these... trying to make good beamshots really makes me appreciate the effort that others put into theirs.
NF-500 Flood
NF-500 Throw
X2000 flood
X2000 Throw
Romisen RC-C6 Flood
Romisen RC-C6 Throw
Finally the EagleTac P100C2
I did try to make a few long distance beamshots, but they didn't turn out that well... I will have to try to perfect my skills some other night when I have more time.
As you can see there is virtually no difference between the NF-500 and the X2000 - I played with them a bit while I was taking the shots, and I really couldn't detect that one was brighter than the other. Unfortunately I neglected to take a picture of the NF-500's low mode. Suffice it to say that it is the usual pseudo low mode that so many DX/KD lights come with. (i.e. about 50% of full output.)Well, to recap - the NF-500 is a great *cheap* little flood-to-throw light that may be one of the better ones on the market currently. Considering the price it may be worth having one.:nana: Thanks for reading and any suggestions/criticisms/observations are welcome.
